If your background sits at the intersection of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data science, or critical infrastructure protection, this is one of the most elite European funding opportunities available right now.
Jointly operated by EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and Switzerland’s Cyber-Defence (CYD) Campus, the 14th Call for the CYD Fellowships is officially open. This prestigious national talent program is designed to bring brilliant international minds together to solve high-stakes digital resilience problems.
While there are absolutely no hidden application fees, trick processing tiers, or submission charges, this is a government-tied security initiative. The competition is intense, and the program requires navigating very strict structural guardrails to win.
Critical Timelines & Tracks
The program offers specialized pathways depending on your current academic stage:
- Doctoral (PhD) & Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships: Stage 1 Application Deadline is August 19, 2026, at 17:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time).
- Master’s Thesis & Proof of Concept (PoC) Fellowships: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis year-round.
- Applicant Workshop: An official, highly recommended online guidance workshop is scheduled for July 7, 2026, to help applicants refine their submissions.
💰 Fully Funded Swiss Packages
The financial backing is structured to match Switzerland’s premium standard of living, offering non-dilutive support across all tiers:
- Master’s Thesis (6 Months): Provides a standard living allowance of CHF 2,500 alongside up to CHF 1,500 in designated research funding.
- Doctoral Fellowships (4 Years + optional 1-year extension): Provides a full Swiss-scale PhD salary, built-in social benefits, and dedicated research and conference travel allocations.
- Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships (Up to 2 Years): Full postdoctoral salary scale, up to CHF 3,000 per year for direct research expenses, and up to CHF 5,000 per year for global conference dissemination.
Strict Logistical & Eligibility Catch Checklist
Before spending hours writing a research proposal, your profile must line up perfectly with these four mandatory criteria:
- The “Swiss Professor” Gatekeeper Rule: You cannot apply independently. To pass the first review tier, you must secure a formal endorsement from an active professor at a higher education institution in Switzerland (such as EPFL or ETH Zurich) who has explicitly agreed to host and supervise your cyber-defense project.
- The Mandatory Location Lock: This is not a remote-friendly fellowship. All chosen fellows must physically move to Switzerland to conduct their research directly on-site at the CYD Campus facilities (located on the premises of EPFL in Lausanne, ETH Zurich, or their core office in Thun).
- The Academic Status Criteria: * Master’s Applicants must already be actively enrolled in a Master’s program at a Swiss university to write their thesis through the campus.
- PhD Applicants must be accepted into or already enrolled in a doctoral school at a Swiss higher education institution by the time they reach Stage 2 of the fellowship selection process.
- The Postdoc Mobility Trap: If you are applying for the Distinguished Postdoctoral track, the rules strictly dictate that you must conduct your fellowship-funded research in a completely different laboratory from the one where you completed your PhD or your current postdoc work.
Core Target Fields
Your research proposal must directly align with one of these high-priority digital safety domains:
- Artificial Intelligence Security & Machine Learning Vulnerabilities
- Network Security, Encryption, and Advanced Privacy Technologies
- Data Science & Complex System Analytics
- Critical Infrastructure & Cyber Resilience Frameworks
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